The purpose of this study was to examine the means of scores on three forms of a standardized reading comprehension test taken by community college students in developmental reading classes. The three forms of the test were administered as a timed multiple-choice test, a constructed response test, and an un-timed multiple-choice test. Scores on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) were used to classify the students who participated in the study as having field dependent (LOW GEFT), mid-field dependent/independent (MID GEFT), or fieldindependent (HIGH GEFT) tendencies. The paired samples test was used to analyze the scores among the students classified as LOW GEFT, MID GEFT, and HIGH GEFT for mean differences in scores on the three test formats. The data revealed that for LOW GEFT students, the format of the test impacted their scores, with the mean of the scores of the un-timed multiple-choice test being significantly higher than the timed multiple-choice test and the constructed response format. The data also showed that for the MID GEFT students the mean of the scores for the un-timed multiple-choice test was significantly higher than the means for the timed multiple-choice test scores and the constructed response test scores. However, no significant mean difference was found between the timed multiple-choice test scores and the constructed response test scores. For the HIGH GEFT students, significant mean difference existed only between the un-timed multiple-choice and the timed multiple choice scores. The means of reading comprehension test scores on the three formats between the LOW GEFT, MID GEFT, and HIGH GEFT students indicated significant mean difference between the timed multiple choice test scores but not between the means of the scores for the constructed response and the un-timed multiple-choice test scores. Demographically, when the means of the reading test scores were analyzed with ethnicity as the controlling variable, the Hispanic students had a significantly higher mean on the scores for the constructed response test format. No other significant mean differences were found between the scores of the African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, or Native American students. When the means of the reading test scores were analyzed with gender as the controlling variable, no significant mean difference was found between the reading comprehension scores of the men and women. This study indicated that cognitive style had more impact on students’ performance on a standardized test of reading comprehension than did ethnicity or gender. The un-timed multiple-choice format also had an equalizing effect on the means of the scores for these students.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

With the advance of reliable network technology, software development has progressed from traditional, platform-centric software construction to network-centric software evolution. An evidence of this change is largely reflected in the technologies that are supporting the emerging theory of Network-Centric Operations (NCO). Amongst these technologies is software architecture as a software engineering sub-discipline. Although the concepts of network centricity are widely recognized within the software and system engineering communities, no unified characterization of network-centric software systems is unanimously adopted. The state-of-the-practice is characterized by differing interpretations about how we should design and implement this class of systems. In this research, our focus is twofold: 1) Providing a characterization framework to reason about network-centric software systems and 2) introducing one solution approach to designing this class of system based on a new architectural style, the network-centric architectural style. In so doing, we set the stage for the software architecture community to analyze the "fitness of use" of current architectural styles and architecture design practices within this new network-centric paradigm. In addition, we set the stage for our continued research that will address further software engineering challenges pertinent to network-centric software systems, which include capability-based requirements engineering and quality attributes-based design. / Master of Science

Cette étude traite du concept de l’intérêt (à susciter chez le lecteur) dans les guides de rédaction professionnelle. Une analyse de contenu de 38 livres électroniques sur la rédaction nous a permis d’observer la prise en compte et la variété du concept de l’intérêt. Les discours sur l'intérêt portent essentiellement sur l’importance de le créer ainsi que sur les moyens pour le susciter. Parmi les 21 sous-catégories de moyens qui se sont manifestées dans le discours des auteurs, les 5 principales concernent l’importance de cibler le lecteur (50 énoncés, 17 sources), d'attirer l'attention (42 énoncés, 22 sources), d’être pertinent (22 énoncés, 12 sources), d’être concis (16 énoncés, 13 sources) et d’écrire avec simplicité (14 énoncés, 11 sources).

This study was descriptive, correlative and explanatory. It summarized the problem solving and learning styles of students enrolled in the spring 2008 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Agricultural Technology program, identified relationships between problem solving and learning styles, and used problem solving and learning styles to explain students' end of course grades. Ninety-three students and six faculty members elected to participate in the study. There were differences between degree options in terms of orientation to change. Second year students were likely to be internal processors. There were not significant differences among the population in ways of deciding. However, Agricultural Technology teachers were more task oriented problem solvers, while their students were people oriented. Teachers were more field independent than the students. There were no relationships between problem solving and learning style. There was a high degree of association between student ways of deciding and manner of processing. Student and teacher problem solving and learning styles were used to explain 11% of the variance in students' end of course grades for the six teachers in the study. Student orientation to change, student manner of processing, teacher manner of processing and teacher ways of deciding scores produced a model that significantly explained end of course grades. Suggestions for further research included identifying other career areas with stylistic trends and further identifying the impact cognitive effect has on student behavior. / Master of Science

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-11T11:13:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Andreassa da Lomba.pdf: 1738916 bytes, checksum: 9231dcde58d03414f095212838c58290 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-11T11:13:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Andreassa da Lomba.pdf: 1738916 bytes, checksum: 9231dcde58d03414f095212838c58290 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-29 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / This research endures the challenge of approaching the faces and interfaces of three styles of oral language. Its objectives are: to investigate the differences and similarities among the sung, spoken and recited styles as stylistic forms of oral language and social expression and to analyze their impressive effects, since the sung, spoken and recited styles have different expressive purposes. To reach the proposed objectives two types of analysis were combined: acoustic and perceptive. The acoustic analysis was used to verify the differences of production among the three styles, while the perceptive analysis, which implied on the application of a semantic differential questionnaire to a group of judges, was used to investigate the impressive impact of the mentioned styles sonorities. By the acoustic analysis it was possible to verify, through the fundamental frequency measures, intensity, duration and spectral decline, the prosodic characteristics of each one of the styles. By the perceptive analysis, the presented results show how each style reaches the listeners in a different way, since the evaluation of the selected descriptors to evaluate them was differential, which evinced different impressive effects. The acoustic and perceptive analysis results were correlated by using statistics tests of multidimensional analysis. The sung, spoken and recited styles prosodies present different aspects, as was shown by the generated values in the script ExpressionEvaluator (BARBOSA, 2009). Therefore, we conclude that the sung, spoken and recited styles cause different impressive effects that activate the organism in different ways and they have the communication as a social role / Esta pesquisa enfrenta o desafio de abordar as faces e as interfaces de três formas de linguagem oral. São seus objetivos: investigar as diferenças e similaridades entre as palavras cantada, falada e declamada como estilos estilísticas de linguagem e de expressão social e analisar seus efeitos impressivos, uma vez que as palavras falada, cantada e declamada têm finalidades expressivas diversas. Para atingir os objetivos propostos foram conjugados dois tipos de análises: acústica e perceptiva. A análise acústica foi utilizada para verificar as diferenças de produção entre os três estilos, enquanto a perceptiva, que implicou na aplicação de um questionário de diferencial semântico a um grupo de juízes, foi utilizada para investigar o impacto impressivo da sonoridade dos estilos mencionados. Pela análise acústica foi possível verificar, por meio de medidas de frequência fundamental, intensidade, duração e declínio espectral, as características prosódicas de cada um dos estilos de palavra. Pela análise perceptiva, os resultados apresentados mostram como cada estilo de palavra atinge de maneira diferente os ouvintes, pois a avaliação dos descritores selecionados para avaliá-los mostrou-se diferenciada, evidenciando efeitos impressivos diversos. Os resultados das análises acústica e perceptiva foram correlacionados por meio de testes estatísticos de análise multidimensional. As prosódias das palavras cantada, falada e declamada apresentam diferenças, como mostrou os valores gerados pelo script ExpressionEvaluator (BARBOSA, 2009). Portanto, concluímos que as palavras cantada, falada e declama causam efeitos impressivos diversos que ativam o organismo de maneira diferenciada e têm como papel social comunicar